Well, I've tracked them all morning on the UPS website and finally our authenticated documents just arrived home. I thought I would include a picture for all of you who are sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what a real-live completed dossier document looks like. Pretty neat, actually. So now what, you might ask? Well, we still have to wait on that prized 171 letter from Atlanta CIS office. Then I will make a copy of it (The original goes to China with me. In fact I might just sleep with it for the next year and a half to make sure it doesn’t get lost). I will get the copy notarized saying it is a real copy, have the notary county certified, drive to Montgomery and get the state cert and then overnight it to a courier in Houston. She will walk it to the Chinese Consulate, have it authenticated and then overnight it back to me. And that, my friends, will be the end. The grand Finale! I will gather all of my precious documents, add a few family photos and drive them to Brentwood, TN., where I will hand them to Vonda at Children’s Hope International and then the wait will begin (well, actually it won’t officially begin until we get a Log-In Date, but at least my part of this document gathering process will be finished!)
Many people ask how long before we can go get Lily Mei? That is the million dollar question. Right now the wait time seems to be 12 -14 months from LID with travel 2 months after referral. My friend Tina says we will go in Feb ’08. I’m thinking more like March. In fact, I am planning on spending my 40th birthday in China with my family (3-26-08). Wouldn't that be the BEST birthday present ever??
So, in the meantime, I have a ton of projects to keep me busy. Right now, I’m trying to housebreak Belle (who we affectionately refer to as “Tinkle-Belle” for obvious reasons). I also want to do the 100 Good Wishes Quilt, catch up on the boy’s scrapbooks (I’m only about 12 years behind!), finish the upstairs (anybody know a good sheetrock guy???) and of course fix Lily Mei’s room! There’s always shopping, too, to pass the time. Steve says I really need to pace myself. He said that at the rate Mom and I are going, Lily will have to change clothes about twenty times a day until she enters kindergarten to actually wear all the outfits! So, I promised only to spend $50 (is that it??) from each paycheck on “Lily things”. I was going to start with this week's check (really, I was) until I went to Dillards.com and saw this precious ladybug dress with matching hairbow and an adorable little pant set with “ABC” on it and a matching hairbow.... Oh my gosh! Little girl stuff is so darn cute!
Oh well…maybe I’ll start with my next check… ;-)
4 comments:
Yippe! Who knows what they say, but we love 'em because they're so 'official'.
I think I've looked over our documents 100 times just to make sure I didn't forget anything. Now if we could just get that 171 !!
WOOOOHOOOO YEAH!! Let's just hope and pray for a fast LID for you and let's all pray for fast referrals and TA's!! Russ and I are coming up on our ^ month anniversary of our LID, April 29, 2006. We were told 12 to 18 months, Yuck!! Next month is our Year anniversary of turning in our application to Villa Hope.
Love Ya, Lisa
Yeah....its going close to getting all those documents together and send them off to China. We will celebrate big time. I will take you shopping. Yes....girl shopping is so much fun. Cracker Barrel is suppose to be our family breakfast place---but they have the best and cutest clothes for girls.....even better when they are 40-70% off. I hope you can make it to the Mommy Breakfast in November....by then.....Halloween stuff will really be on sale and we can shop together that day.
Hugs to all
Connie
Congratulations Monica! Your paperwork looks great! I know you are happy to almost be done with it:)
I noticed you have a link under shopping to the Itty Bitty Ladybug sight. The little girl on the homepage is Taylor. Her aunt owns the Itty Bitty Ladybug. Taylor was in the same orphanage as my Emma. We were in the same travel group. She is another CHI baby :)
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